Bret Michaels - 'Custom Built'

[Geoff]

 

Track list:

 

01. Riding Against The Wind

02. Lie To Me

03. Nothing To Lose (featuring Miley Cyrus)

04. Wasted Time

05. What I Got

06. Every Rose Has Its Thorn (country version feat. Brad Arnold of 3 DOORS DOWN, Chris Cagle, Mark Wills)

07. Go That Far (club mix by Jason Miller of GODHEAD)

08. Driven (rock mix)

09. Open Road

10. Rock N My Country

11. Nothing To Lose (Bret-only demo)

12. I'd Die For You

 

Honestly, I think if I hear Bret Michaels sing the words "... that famous final scene" or something of the like in another one of his songs, I will forsake him. Seriously, I think there are about three songs on this that refer to "the famous final scene," and on every album since and including 'Native Tongue' (the brilliant 'Theatre of my soul' - should have been the first and last reference). What is his obsession with this line?

 

Anyway, aside from that this is a completely mixed bag. Some utter garbage, a )literal) couple of good pop rock tunes... production varies too. The opener is probably the best song, and aside from some awful chorus production (though the verses sound fine?!) the 2nd song is okay too. 'Nothing to lose' is boring but okay, and 'Wasted time' is pretty cool. And that's where it get's ugly. 'What I got' is terrible, the country version of 'Every rose' is a crime, 'Go that far' is shithouse, 'Driven' is a dance track (seriously, from country to dance in the space of a few songs - awful!) and of the rest we have a repeat song, another country song which is terrible and a couple of average songs. So yeah, overall, gotta admit it's a pretty piss-weak album imo. I'll pick it up from a bargain bin at one stage, but I won't rush for the hard copy at all.

[glam_junkie]

FIrst half of the album was pretty good, but 2nd half not so.

 

Not sure if the second half are worse tracks, or it's just becoming a bit repetitive.

[Fat Freddy]

What is his obsession with this line?

 

I would think it's very apropos considering he came pretty damn close to his own "final scene" a couple of times in the past year, if you know what I mean.

[heaven&hell]

I haven't heard this yet but besides the four good songs from Power to the People he hasn't wrote to many good tunes since Crack A Smile. Not sure why he can't write good songs anymore. Maybe he needs CC, Bobby and Ricki more than he thinks.

[Captain Howdy]

I have to disagree on most of whats said above, as I feel Bret has written some truly great tunes over his solo career.

I also like the fact he does some country stuff, as its better that he keeps it to his solo releases, but then again, we aint exactly getting any new Poison material anyway.

 

I'd also make a slight correction, Driven is not a dance track, Go that far is.

 

While for me, the only weak track is the aforementioned Go that far, and I couldnt give a rats arse if a lyric has been used more than once (you show me a rock band that hasnt reused a lyric a few times during their career), my biggest problem with this album is the same problem I have had with the bulk of Brets solo albums ... the fact that he keeps using the same songs over and over again. Instead of getting an album of all new material, we seem to always get a re-recorded version/remixed version or even a totally unchanged version of songs that have been on previous solo albums.

Go that far, Rock n my country, Every rose (country version), Driven, I'd die for you & Open road have all been on previous albums in one form or another.

Now if you take out those six and the second version of Nothing to lose, thats only five new tracks.

[Geoff]

I have to disagree on most of whats said above, as I feel Bret has written some truly great tunes over his solo career.

I also like the fact he does some country stuff, as its better that he keeps it to his solo releases, but then again, we aint exactly getting any new Poison material anyway.

 

I'd also make a slight correction, Driven is not a dance track, Go that far is.

 

While for me, the only weak track is the aforementioned Go that far, and I couldnt give a rats arse if a lyric has been used more than once (you show me a rock band that hasnt reused a lyric a few times during their career), my biggest problem with this album is the same problem I have had with the bulk of Brets solo albums ... the fact that he keeps using the same songs over and over again. Instead of getting an album of all new material, we seem to always get a re-recorded version/remixed version or even a totally unchanged version of songs that have been on previous solo albums.

Go that far, Rock n my country, Every rose (country version), Driven, I'd die for you & Open road have all been on previous albums in one form or another.

Now if you take out those six and the second version of Nothing to lose, thats only five new tracks.

Whoops. Yep, my mistake. Basically, for me I pretty much switched off after the first 4 songs to be honest and the rest was just a mixture of badness.

 

I'd still love to see a new Poison CD, but the more I hear these solo releases from Bret the less I have desire for new Poison. I do seriously hope there would still be magic if he got back with CC, Bobby and Rikki to write some new songs... but I dunno. Like Wes says, maybe the magic has died?